


You Promised Me

by r_gally37



Category: Veep (TV)
Genre: F/M, Post 6x02, Throwback
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 13:13:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10720017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/r_gally37/pseuds/r_gally37
Summary: You promised me once, that you were never going to be that girl.” His voice is quieter now, he’s speaking softly and fondly of that night years ago, when they were younger and life was simpler, and they were building a plan, a future, together.“Buddy didn’t have me make the same promise.”





	You Promised Me

Amy is sitting in the all too familiar hotel room in Carson City. A glass of scotch in her hand and a sense of deja vu churning her stomach. She refuses to go to Buddy’s apartment. She refused to speak with him directly. But for some reason, she also refuses to get on a plane and just go home. She wants to stick this out, wants to win. But what is winning worth? What will it even get her in the long run? Amy is spiraling, and as she pours another glass of scotch, she wonders if this is now what forever is going to be.

When her phone rings, she answers it. Hoping for Ben, or Kent or someone to tell her what to do. What she gets, and is not all that surprised by, is Dan’s voice coming through the speaker of her phone and filling up the room.

“What the fuck Amy? Where are your balls?” He asks, on the verge of yelling. Its the first time they talked since the inauguration, and Amy welcomes the familiarity of the voice, of the memories of home, despite the angry cadence.

“I could ask you the same question. The Lincoln Monument Danny, really? Thats what you fucked my sister for?” She threw back. Even though she had missed him, she wasn't going to let him know that.

“Don’t you start with that ‘Danny’ shit. I thought you knew better than to become that girl lobotomized, standing by her man.” Throwing back the words she had said to Selena not 24 hours prior.

“If I want to start my own political career, I need to get married.” She told him, giving him the same argument she had given herself countless times that day.

“Thats bullshit and you know it. And even if it were true, you would need to hitch yourself to a winner, not some dessert living, cousin fucker from the backwoods of Nevada that sexually harassed a police officer.” He tells her, echoing her conscious all day.

“And what if I love him?” she argues. he laughs. a deep belly, head thrown back laugh that only makes Amy angrier.

“Then thats what you would have said first.” Amy knows its true. “Ame, what happened? You promised me once, that you were never going to be that girl.” His voice is quieter now, he’s speaking softly and fondly of that night years ago, when they were younger and life was simpler, and they were building a plan, a future, together.

***

_Amy laid with her head on his shoulder, running a hand through his chest hair as he argued with the correspondents on the news about the handling of the hostages in Iraq. The plan she had hatched in her head was different from his own, but both were better than the garbage being spouted on the TV._

_“When I’m President, I’m going to create a protocol. 48 hours of diplomacy and then send in the tactical team. None of this waiting around bullshit that Stevenson is trying to pull.” he tells her._

_“Diplomacy is more important than military force Dan. Don’t you read the papers on the middle east. What we need is long term Diplomatic teams in every country in the middle east to form trust with the governments and make terrorist organizations outliers in their countries.” She informs him._

_“This is why you are going to be way more important in my administration than Nancy Stevenson.” He tells her, kissing the top of her head. She shoots up like a rocket as the words set in._

_“Did you just refer to me as your first lady?” she asks._

_“Not if you're gonna get all weird about it.” he replies trying to pull her back down onto his body._

_“Dan, we've been dating for like 2 weeks.” she argues, letting herself be pulled back into him._

_“It was a hypothetical. And lets be honest, if say 20 years from now, I am President and you are beside me, you would be more than just the first lady. You would be an advisor in the cabinet, probably high up on my campaign staff. You would definitely have more power than the Vice President.” he tickles her to make her giggle._

_“Fine, if 20 years from now, you are President and we are still together, I accept the position in your staff.” she says catching her breath._

_“There is just one thing.” Dan says sobering the room._

_“Anything.” she kisses his chin, so deliriously happy._

_“If I mess up, leave me. Don’t be a Hillary Clinton or a Huma Abedin, who are marred by their husbands mistakes. You are worth so much more than that. Leave me. Show them you are strong and you can and will succeed on your own. Promise me.” He's staring in her eyes, conveying how much he believes in her._

_“I promise.” she says, as she leans up to kiss him, tears in her eyes, because the only person to ever believe in her like Dan seems to is her father._

***

“Buddy didn’t have me make the same promise.” she tells him. Tears are falling down her cheeks, but she refuses to let the emotion into her voice as she remembers that night, as she remembers how in love with him she was, how in love with him she is.

“Then I'm holding you to the promise you made me. Leave him, because you deserve the world, and he isn't going to get it for you.”

“Dan, no one else is going to hire me. I can’t go back to her, I can’t go back to that hell, with those dumb fucking people in a town she she has burned every fucking bridge I ever had. With him, I have a clean slate. I can win him a seat in the house, and I can remake connections as his chief of staff and then I can…” She stops.

“And then you can what, Amy? What’s the next step from there?” He asks, already knowing the conclusion she has come to. There are no more steps after that. Thanks to the DUI and sexual harassment, Buddy can’t become anything more than a governor from Nevada, no President is ever going to out him on a cabinet, or ask him to be veep, his career has a limit, and every time she grabs his hand, she puts a limit on her own.

“Then what do I do Dan? Whats my next step?” she asks him, praying for an answer.

“Come home.” he tells her and hangs up the phone.

Come home he told her and it echoes in her mind. To Selena? To DC? To him? Amy takes a deep breath, and another, and then she does the same with glasses of scotch. After her 4th glass of the night, she starts to pack. Because dammit she is Amy FUCKING Brookheimer, she turned the biggest fucking mess of a woman into the President of the United States, and she doesn't need to be the wife of some West Bumblefuck governor that cant keep it in his pants to get where she wants to go. She can do it on her damn own.


End file.
